Anna Ushenina
Number of games in database: 599
Years covered: 2000 to 2015
Last FIDE rating: 2486(2513 rapid, 2485 blitz)
Highest rating achieved in database: 2502Overall record: +166 -98 =218 (57.1%)*
* Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.
117 exhibition games, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

Ushenina was born in Kharkov where she still lives. She learned chess at the age of 7 from her mother and she attended what was then the Sport School of Olympic Reserves and is now called the Kharkov School of Physical Culture and Sports from 2000 and graduated in 2002. Her coach from 2000 until 2002 was Artiom Tsepotan, who is the founder of the live ratings site http://www.2700chess.com/.

Ushenina competed in the first event of the Women's Grand Prix series 2013-14, the Women Grand Prix Geneva (2013), scoring 6/11 and placing =5th, scoring 75 Grand Prix points. Her second event in the series was at FIDE Women's Grand Prix Dilijan (2013) where she placed 5th with 5.5/11 (+1 -1 =9), earning another 80 GP points. Qualifying for the World Cup (2013) as current Women's World Champion, she met Peter Svidler in the 1st round and after drawing with the Russian GM in the two standard games and in the 25 minute rapid game tiebreakers, she eventually lost in the 2nd set of rapid game (10+10) tiebreakers. Her win against Svidler in the 2nd game of the standard match earned for her the highest standard rating of her career.

In April 2014, she played in the 4th leg of the Women's Grand Prix 2013-14, and scored 5/11 for an =8th placement at the FIDE Women's Grand Prix Khanty - Mansiysk (2014). In September, she played in the sixth and final leg of the Grand Prix series at FIDE Women's Grand Prix Sharjah (2014), placing 3rd-6th and earning 87.5 GP points. Her final best-of-three tally for the Grand Prix Series 2013-14 was 242.5, earning her 9th place in the overall standings.

Classical Tournaments:

She won the Rudenko Memorial held in Saint Petersburg in 2004 and placed 2nd at the North Urals Cup (2008). She won the round robin Rector's Cup event in 2010.

Ushenina played board 1 for the Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk region club in the European Women's club Cup 2014, winning individual bronze and helping her team to fourth place. She is also playing in the 2014 Chinese League, where she is playing for the Tianjing team.

Award:

In January 2013, the President of Ukraine awarded Ushenina the Order of Princess Olga, 2nd Class, in recognition of her winning the Women's World Championship.*

FIDE ratings and rankings:

<Standard> As of 1 February 2015, Ushenina’s rating was 2486, making her the #21 woman player in the world. Her peak rating was 2502 in July 2007 when she was ranked #8 woman in the world;

John Abraham: A disappointing performance for Anna but every disappointment is also a learning opportunity. Hopefully she will not allow this match to affect her morale and will be even more motivated in the future.

On the other hand, I really think she should revert to brown hair, it is her natural hair color and suits her so much better:

dx9293: <FSR: Sorry, the naysayers were right.> Sometimes, they will be. That's life.

It's really interesting that I hardly see anyone else stick their neck out and root for the underdog in these matches beforehand. In both men's and women's chess it seems that a large majority of fans just choose the rating favorite and dismiss the lower-rated as somehow being an unworthy nuisance. I've seen this attitude towards Gelfand in his match against Anand, towards Ushenina in her match against Hou, and even towards Anand in the upcoming match with Carlsen.

Even though the 2013 Women's World Championship match went horribly for Anna Ushenina, I would hope that she has gained some respect and admiration for her achivements in the chess world, especially considering that she hasn't enjoyed nearly the same support that some of her peers get. How much more could she have developed with similar support to what Hou, Humpy, A.Muzychuk, and the Turks, etc. get? Even Ushenina's countrywoman Lahno got significant financial support from a young age.

Anna Ushenina is mainly a self-made chessplayer. I have a hell of a lot of respect for that.

keypusher: <dx9293: <FSR: Sorry, the naysayers were right.> Sometimes, they will be. That's life.

It's really interesting that I hardly see anyone else stick their neck out and root for the underdog in these matches beforehand. In both men's and women's chess it seems that a large majority of fans just choose the rating favorite and dismiss the lower-rated as somehow being an unworthy nuisance. I've seen this attitude towards Gelfand in his match against Anand, towards Ushenina in her match against Hou, and even towards Anand in the upcoming match with Carlsen.>

Utter horseshit.

Anand, deservedly, has lots of fans who will be rooting for him in November. But if you're handicapping the match, then yes, Carlsen is a strong favorite. Many root for Anand but expect Carlsen to win.

Speaking for myself, Gelfand, though of course a great master, was not a particularly deserving challenger. He was the survivor of a silly qualification cycle which produced a world championship match that not many people gave a damn about. Nothing like the anticipation felt for Anand-Carlsen and Anand-Kramnik, certainly.

Ushenina was also the product of a silly WC cycle. She was no more the WC than Ponomariov or Kasimdzhanov was. I hope no one finds it objectionable that the new woman's WC, unlike her predecessor, can reasonably claim to be the strongest female player in the world. (More than reasonably, of course, if you don't count Judit Polgar.)

dx9293: <keypusher> You said it yourself: many expect Carlsen to win. I would go further and say <most> expect him to win. Even me, though I'm rooting for Anand.

It's hard to claim that Gelfand was an unworthy challenger after winning the World Cup, the Candidates matches (much better than deciding a Challenger based on most f---ing wins in a tournament), and drawing the Classical phase of the WC match. It's even harder to claim as since the match Gelfand has won the London GP, tied for first at the Alekhine Memorial, and won the Tal Memorial clear.

The Anand-Gelfand match wasn't highly anticipated? So what? Gelfand was the first challenger to draw a WC match in played games since 2004, where Kramnik failed and Topalov failed twice. Chess isn't a popularity contest.

Ushenina won her WC title the exact same way Hou did. For my comments on Ponomariov and Kasimdzhanov, etc. check out the Ushenina-Hou page.

perfidious: The increasingly strident tone of <dx9293>'s posts, as he becomes aware that not everyone subscribes to his views on KO chess, and that he cannot simply browbeat or will others into submission, has its amusing aspects.

twinlark: <Ushenina was also the product of a silly WC cycle. She was no more the WC than Ponomariov or Kasimdzhanov was.>

Wrong.

Actually she was. Karpov and Anand initially, then Khalifman, Ponomariov and Kasimdzhanov were products of a flawed cycle but they would have been the undisputed World Champions had the title not been split by Kasparov and FIDE, and had Kasparov been dethroned in a world championship selection event in the normal manner of OTB play.

There is no such dispute here. Hou legitimately lost her world title in the 2012 World Tournament knockout match, losing both games of a mini-match in standard time to a 2400+ player, and Ushenina legitimately won the title to become the <undisputed champion>.

Objecting to a flawed World Championship selection process is one thing, but there was never any dispute about who won the Women's World Championship as there is an unbroken succession since Lyudmila Rudenko in 1950 (Menchik if you ignore the 9 years between her death and Rudenko gaining the title) through Hou who also won in a knockout contest in 2011 through to Ushenina and again Hou.

The argument is about a flawed World Championship cycle, as there is no logical dispute about title incumbents past or present. To say Ushenina wasn't a world champion because she wasn't number 1 in the ratings or near to it is just plain wrong. Hou is not number 1 and never has been, but she was and is again the World Champion despite Polgar's dominance of the women's game for the last 25 years.

dx9293: <perfidious> I'm well aware that many chess fans disagree with my views on KO tournaments. I just give my opinions and my reasoning for them. Sometimes posters give good counter-arguments, but often it seems they haven't really thought carefully about what they're saying, and are misinformed.

GumboGambit: It seems like there is a lot of animosity and disrespect from the patzers here towards winners of KO tournaments.

Well, there is a saying: Dont hate the player, hate the game. (ie the system)

While I agree that it is inappropriate to declare a WC, using KOs to determine a challenger seems like a reasonable measure. More immediacy and excitement in the individual games. Everyone left in the tournament is eligible for victory and playing to win. The effect of GM draws is limited. Tiebreakers are determined over the board. So there are pros and cons.

But regardless, what do the internet patzers and haters expect the KO winners like Anna to do? Withdraw the title? Just forfeit the matches? If you were in her or Ruslans etc shoes, what would you do?

Lambda: I wouldn't be so quick to downplay links between the knockout "world championships". Knockout world championships in chess are a bit of a joke. Is it a coincidence that they've only been instigated when the "world championship" itself that they determine was a bit of a joke? Whether due to the absence of the reigning champion, or because the very basis for its existence and for gender segregation in general had been firmly disproven, I don't think anyone would dare suggesting "let's allow the champion to lose their title in a minimatch!" if the incumbent champion was a proper champion who had beaten everyone.

HSOL: Whatever someone thinks about the KO World Championships, winning the biggest women's tournament of the year, should give Ushenina some credit at least. Given Judit Polgar has been the clearly best female player this millennium, I can't see why Hou deserves whole credit of being WWC while Ushenina deserves none.

Kaspablanca: Beholder: Also remember the time Kasparov slamed the door when he lost to Anand in the 1995 World championship tournament; the day Carlsen wants to take back a piece he touched when he played Alexandra Kosteniuk in a blitz game and Kosteniuk demanded him to move that piece, the Fischer´s demands are classic,etc, etc.

twinlark: Looks like Carlsen was exasperated and disgusted with himself for making a patzer level blunder (a whole rook!).

I remember once letting loose the f-bomb at one of my blunders that immediately terminated a rapid game in a local comp. No one cared as it was obviously simply a reaction to making a blunder, although I did get an amused look or two.

savagerules: I watched that video and it was rather amusing, kind of like he was playing his big sister and she was scolding him for trying to take back a move and he sulked away without acknowledging her. But it was a blitz game so no big deal.

waustad: She lost her first game in the Ukranian women's Championship and hasn't played in rounds 2-5. Since this is a round robin, that probably indicates that she is ill. Hopefully it is nothing serious.

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